Within The Pocket
by Basmathgirl
Summary: When Donna was zapped out of her wedding, she didn't just appear in the TARDIS. She also turned up somewhere else entirely. (A Ten/Donna AU)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I own a few pockets. And a wedding dress.

 **A/N:** a little Runaway Bride AU that was especially written to wish **tardis_mole** a very happy birthday! (I know you hate it when a story isn't finished, but at least you are getting _something_ for now)

* * *

 **Within The Pocket**

 **Part 1**

.

The Doctor turned from the console, heartbroken. It had taken days to find a suitable dying star to send his message, and then even longer for Rose to turn up on that Norwegian beach to deliver it. But it was done; he had closure on their relationship. He could lock away his emotions and live on now. That's what he told himself.

At that precise moment, a vision occurred on the far side of the console to him. A humanoid figure clad in long white clothing shimmered in the low light of the TARDIS, and then just as quickly, it was gone.

"What!" he blurted out.

"Where am I?" a distinctly female, angry and frightened voice demanded to know.

"What?!" he cried in surprise, whirling around and seeing no one there.

"What the hell is this place?!" the same adult female voice queried.

It was then obvious to him where exactly she was. She was inside his head. "What are you doing in there? Get out of my mind," he ordered the voice.

"Is that where this is? Inside your mind," the voice tried to reason out. "Did Nerys set you up to drug me? This has Nerys written all over it. I knew she'd get me back; but to send me on this bad trip is pretty sick."

Now confused, the Doctor inevitably asked, "Who is Nerys?"

"Your new best friend," the voice snapped. "She must have paid you to kidnap me."

"Kidnap! I don't even know a Nerys, let alone followed her instructions," he retorted. "Where would you have been kidnapped from?"

"I was going ten pin bowling," she sarcastically replied. "I was getting married! I was halfway up the aisle and you grabbed me."

"Ah. That wouldn't have been me," he confessed. "It was the TARDIS."

The TARDIS immediately confirmed this state of affairs in his mind via their link and a low hum.

"Who said that?" the voice warily asked. "And what's a 'TARDIS'. It isn't even a word."

Wanting to calm the voice down, the Doctor explained, "TARDIS stands for 'Time And Relative Dimensions In Space'. It's the name of my space ship."

"No," the voice drawled in disbelief. "I can't be in a spaceship; I was in church."

So the Doctor walked over to the TARDIS doors and opened them, revealing the swirl of a nebula outside. "See. Space. Lots of it."

"I'm in space. Inside a head in space. This is bonkers!" the voice exclaimed. "It will take some getting used to. Unless I'm high and tripping. You hear of such things happening."

"No, you are not in a drug induced trip." At least the person inside his head was considerably calmer now and wasn't moving about so much. His next concern was identifying them and then getting them out. "I'm the Doctor. And you are…?"

"Donna," the voice supplied.

"Human?" he wondered. Since the probability of it being human was higher than any other species. It felt human-like inside his head. Although there were other beings with similar thought processes.

"Yeah," she answered. "Is that normally optional?"

"It is for me." To his relief, she seemed to easily accept that rather than freaked out. "But why are you inside my mind?"

She didn't have an answer to that, and fortunately he didn't seem to expect one.

Instead, he ran to find the nearest mirror. It happened to be over the sink in his bedroom en suite bathroom. Once there, he gazed at his reflection with renewed interest; peering intensely into his own eyes, turning his head to examine his ears, sticking out his tongue, and lifting his head to examine the inside of his nose.

"Ew! Gross!" the voice commented when he held up his arms to sniff his armpits. "Do you have to do all this in front of me?"

"There's no way around it," he griped back, "unless you decide to come out of there."

"I wish I could," she replied. "It's not exactly a picnic having to look up your nose and gawp at your orifices."

It was on the tip of his tongue to point out that he hadn't forced her to examine his behind; but felt it was best to keep that to himself. For now.

"And no, I do not want to see your bum, thank you very much!"

Okay, maybe thinking it had been a bad idea too. She could hear his thoughts. Hopefully it wasn't all of them. Perhaps he ought to try something obscure, like the Cryoptic Lakes of Napalasocomica.

"The what?" she questioned. "Is that a place in America?"

"No, a planet. You are very Earth-centric, Donna."

"Just get on with it, Martian. You'd spend all day looking at yourself in the mirror if you could. And stop bleeping me!" she loudly huffed when he waved his sonic screwdriver over his head.

"But I need to find out how you got there," he whined. He liked using his sonic screwdriver, and nobody had ever dissed it before. "There has to be a reason why."

Did she have an audible heartbeat? Or a visible presence beyond his iris at the back of his eye. This would need his stethoscope and ophthalmic mirror. Before he could do little more than turn to find his medical instruments there was an almighty "BAM!" to the side of his head, knocking him flying; with his face ending up hitting the side of the shower door.

"What was that for?!" he cried, rubbing his cheek.

The fury from her swelled up again. "Stop mucking about and get me to the church!"

"Okay, I'll do that," he acquiesced, wanting to desperately get rid of her.

After all, he didn't want to receive another blow like that again. He'd be a fool to encourage it. Or even goad her, just a little bit. Not that he intended to; you know, in the grand scheme of things.

"You're weird," she mumbled.

"How about I go to this church you were getting married in and see what could have caused you to disappear?" he offered. His sense of adventure was returning, and he wanted to make the most of it.

Partly to satisfy her curiosity, and partially to appease him since he obviously needed to be distracted from some very sad thoughts, she readily agreed. From what his mind was telling her, he'd been morose for quite a while, having recently lost a dear friend. Well, she could easily understand that. Hadn't her grandmother died fairly recently? She knew what grief was and how awful it was to deal with. "St Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Britain, North Europe, the Earth," she petulantly trotted out.

"That's very precise." Now energised, the Doctor rushed to punch in the coordinates into the console. "And off we go," he gleefully announced as he pushed and pulled the appropriate buttons and lever. The whole TARDIS shook, and he could easily feel Donna's fear. "It's okay. We 're flying through space to Earth. Nothing to worry about."

" _If_ we manage to stay in one piece," she remarked.

He allowed himself a smug grin in reply. It wouldn't do to be too distracted as he materialised the TARDIS.

"Oi! Earthgirl here. What time is it?" she wondered.

Glancing at the monitor, he noted, "Five thirty outside. And she seems really reluctant to actually land anywhere near the church. Strange."

"Poor thing. She doesn't sound well at all. We've missed the wedding, by the way," she supplied. "They'll be at the reception. Oh dear! They'll be so upset that I'm not there."

"In that case, I'd better go and tell them you're safe." He quickly amended, "Well, safe for now."

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever it is that brought you to me, it wants you alive," he explained, "and that probably isn't good."

There was a pause, and then she suggested, "Then you'd better hurry up and investigate this. You'd better steer us towards the church hall next to St Mary's."

~O~O~

It was quite dark outside when the Doctor left the TARDIS and entered the church hall. Loud music blared out and several people were dancing. Everyone looked as though they were enjoying themselves. The person who wasn't soon made it evident to the Doctor.

"They had the reception without me," Donna griped. "I cannot believe they had the reception without me!"

"So I see," he murmured. His gaze took in the scene and was appalled on her behalf.

"Who are you?" one lone person eventually asked him.

"That's my mum. Sylvia Noble," Donna supplied.

The Doctor silently thanked her before answering the question. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. I'm looking for Donna. She invited me to the wedding. Is she here?"

"No, she disappeared at the church; did a little party trick," Sylvia bitterly remarked. "We've no idea where she is hiding herself."

"Oh." He couldn't think of an appropriate question to ask for a second. "Why are you still celebrating, then?"

A sour faced blonde woman stopped dancing with a man who was presumably the groom, judging by the way he was dressed, in order to add her two-pennyworth. "It was all bought and paid for, so why not?"

"Nerys!" Donna seethed in his mind. "Trust her to grab Lance when I'm out of the way. I bet she is _loving_ this."

"Nerys, is it?" the Doctor tried to pleasantly ascertain. "Do you know how Donna disappeared."

"She was there one minute, walking up the aisle, and the next she just disappeared," Nerys answered. "We were expecting her to turn up at any minute dressed as a magician's assistant, but you turned up instead."

Was it caused by a hidden transmat? "Was there anything different about the flooring in the church?" he asked both women.

"Probably a secret trapdoor leading down to the catacombs," Sylvia retorted, "judging by how Donna disappeared. Rhodri caught it all on camera."

Deeply intrigued, the Doctor requested, "Can I have a look?"

Minutes later he had seen the footage several times. Donna holding on to her dad's arm, there was a golden glow, and then she teleported out of the church. The glow pointed to something other than a transmat. Instead, it suggested a substance of alien origin within her body.

"Okay, Spaceman. Tell me what you think it is," Donna ordered.

"Trouble. Deep trouble, and I can't understand why you have been targeted" he replied. "You're not important, you're not special, so why single you out? What sort of work do you do?"

"I'm a secretary. I work as a temp at HC Clements. They're a type of fancy locksmith. That's where I met Lance; he brought me coffee. I mean, they never bring temps coffee, but he did, every day."

The Doctor stared at Lance who had returned to dancing with Nerys. The man certainly didn't seem to be all that concerned about his fiancée. And judging by the quiet in his head, Donna was aware of that fact too. Anyway, if it wasn't Donna 'they' wanted, it must be something to do with where she worked, so the Doctor borrowed a phone from a man at the bar, and secretly used his sonic to scroll through information about the background of HC Clements as fast as possible. Within nanoseconds it revealed that the company was owned by Torchwood. Definitely alien involvement then.

"Who are they?" Donna asked when she saw the parent company name.

"An organisation to hunt down aliens; set up by Queen Victoria."

"She must have really hated aliens," Donna commented. "You don't just decide that sort of thing out of the blue. Especially when you consider all the scientific societies she encouraged."

"Yes," he mumbled.

"It was you! You're the reason why she hated aliens!" she proclaimed. "My, you get around."

He had to concede that that was true. "Nevertheless, we need to investigate HC Clements further."

"Don't forget to take Lance with you," she demanded. "He'll be able to help you find my body or discover its whereabouts."

"Do I have to?"

"If you want me to help you steer this body of yours then yes. Otherwise I'll do this…" And she immediately relinquished her hold on one half of his body, and he staggered sideways, almost colliding with the buffet table.

"Sorry. Been a while since I ate," he apologised to the woman who glared at him for nearly demolishing a load of food. "Might take some with me." With that, he grabbed up a handful of sandwiches and stuffed them into his pockets. "Now where's Lance? He can give me a lift."

~O~O~


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I haven't exactly quoted 'The Runaway Bride' faithfully, merely gone for the vibe, but hopefully you're okay with that.

* * *

 **Part 2**

.

"You want me to take you where?" Lance protested when he was asked. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you want to find me alive and well," Donna pithily suggested.

Instead, the Doctor replied, "I need to find Donna, and the vital clue might be there in the offices of HC Clements."

Lance scowled. "Why? What do you want her for?"

The question should be: why aren't you insisting I look? The Doctor carefully worded his answer. "I'm here to help and Donna is my friend."

"And Donna is my fiancée," Lance unnecessarily remarked. "Is something going on between you two?"

"Erm. We're very close," the Doctor cagily answered, giving his neck a comforting rub. "But nothing that would interfere with your relationship."

Lance seemed to mull that over for a few seconds before stating, "We'll go to H.C. Clements. My car is the Smart."

"Just what I need, a mobile hairdryer," the Doctor muttered.

"Oi! Be nice," Donna reminded him. "Smart cars aren't exactly cheap to buy."

"Charm and money. Whatever made you choose him?" he sarcastically wondered.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," she honestly replied. "Perhaps he's in shock?"

The Doctor merely huffed and felt it was best not to say any more. Instead, he sought out where Lance had started up his car, and climbed into the passenger seat. As it was, he had to tuck up his knees into his chest to avoid thumping his head on the ceiling. For some reason, he was surprised there were no furry dice hanging from the rear-view mirror or a name banner across the top of the windshield; but wasn't surprised to then gain a mental pod from Donna.

~O~O~

"Is this where Donna normally sits?" the Doctor asked as he approached the likely candidate desk.

"Yeah," Lance vaguely answered and then danced about, frantically gazing out of windows and through open doorways as though he expected them to be discovered at any second. "Are you thinking of putting a blue plaque there?"

Ignoring the ready retort on his lips, the Doctor focused his attention on whizzing through the files on Donna's terminal once he'd secretly sonicked it. There didn't seem to be much of interest on the screen, not until he stumbled upon the schematics of the building.

"Found anything yet?" she eagerly asked him. "Do you know what happened to me?"

He surreptitiously peered towards Lance before mentally answering, "You were pulled into the TARDIS via excited particles." He lifted up a pencil and a mug from the desk in demonstration, twiddling the pencil about between his fingers until it fell into the mug. "See."

Confused by the comparison, she muttered, "I'm a pencil inside a mug."

"Yes, you are. 4H, sums you up."

"Oi, I'm not thick and blunt," she raged, but he had spotted something on a blueprint and was already running to investigate.

"Where are you going?" Lance demanded to know.

"The lift," the Doctor supplied. "On the plans there is only one basement, but in the lift, there's a button for a second basement. A locked button. I wonder what's down there." This time he brought out his sonic screwdriver and waved it over the controls without any hesitation.

"Get Lance to come in the lift too," Donna ordered. When he dithered, she yelled, "Now!"

"Aren't you coming too?" the Doctor reluctantly invited Lance.

"I suppose so."

Seconds later they were plummeting downwards.

"Oh! Transport," the Doctor enthused when they walked through the glass lift doors. He saw a long deserted and empty wide corridor that held three Segways to travel on.

Lance dutifully followed his lead and boarded one, but he was having nowhere near the same amount of fun.

"I've never been on one of these before," Donna confessed.

"Me neither," the Doctor admitted to her. "Good, isn't it."

"Oh yes," she trilled. And laughed with delight with him.

By the side of them, Lance sneered in disgust. What was this muppet laughing about? He couldn't see the joke at all. "I'm going to leave you to it," he announced suddenly, stopping the Segway he was riding. "I have guests I ought to get back to."

"Alright, Lance was it?" the Doctor dismissed him.

"Yeah. We can do without you," Donna added in his mind. "You tell him, Doctor!"

Lance looked as though he was going to say something else but obviously thought better of it. Instead, he threw at the Doctor, "See you later."

The Doctor raised a hand as though absently waving goodbye and carried on down the corridor.

"It's just you and me," Donna remarked in his inner ear. "Let's do some exploring."

"I could get to like you," he replied, and felt a warm glow inside that he presumed was her. "Oh look, a door."

Indeed it was. A rather interesting door that obviously led somewhere important. So the Doctor scrambled off the Segway and carefully walked through it. On the other side was a large cavern filled with long tubes filled with bubbling liquid.

"What is this place?" Donna whispered.

"A laboratory. A secret laboratory."

"Under the building," she gasped.

"I know, love. Who would have thought it?" he mused as he touched, pinged and peered at the giant tubes. Spotting a metal lidded vial, he picked it up and undid the lid to test the contents. It immediately began to glow.

"What the hell are you doing?" Donna loudly protested. "That hurts."

"Sorry," he mumbled, quickly tightening the lid back up. "That means you are still linked to your body."

"No kidding, Sherlock," she grumbled. "So what is that stuff?"

"Huon particles," he answered, pocketing the vial to investigate later. "Energy from million years ago. We got rid of them millennia ago. The only other place in the universe with Huon particles is the TARDIS. Oh! Oh, look at that," he enthused, tapping the side of a tube. "They are filtering the river water from above to create Huon energy particles. But what for? What could they be using it for?"

Suddenly his whole left side went limp again, and he fell to the floor, banging his head in the process.

"Why did you do that?" he wailed, rubbing the pain away. "You've gone all quiet."

"Doctor," a frightened voice echoed in his head. "Why did your people get rid of them?"

"Because…" He realised he would have to be totally honest with her, despite not wanting to be. "Because they were dangerous." When his body instantly sagged again, he quickly continued, "But it'll be alright. We will find your body and get rid of the particles. I promise you. I'm not about to lose somebody else."

"I thought you wanted to get rid of me."

"Not like that. I want to help you," he reassured her. "Perhaps there's something useful over here." He stepped beyond the glowing tubes of river water towards the unexplored cavern beyond.

"They need to get an interior decorator in," Donna noted. "It's a bit sparse. A couple of rugs and a settee or two would do wonders for the aesthetic."

He chuckled. Yes, he was really warming to her personality. "Well, there is that huge circular hole. You must admit that it does add something."

"Weirdness, mainly," she noted as he peered over the edge and down into the depths beneath.

It looked as though it went on for miles, but the edges were extremely neat. "That's been done with lasers. I wonder what's down there."

"Dinosaurs?" she suggested.

"What?!" he exclaimed, stepping back in surprise. If he had expected an answer, it certainly wasn't that.

"Like in that film 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'," she explained. "Dinosaurs."

His disapproving scowl was still on his face when a disembodied voice declared, "Ah, there he is. The other half of a handsome couple."

Whatever or whoever they were, they didn't sound human to his ears, so the Doctor goaded them to show themselves. Seconds later, a creature teleported itself into the cavern, landing high up the wall on a ledge. A huge red spider.

"What the hell is that?" Donna queried.

But the Doctor was busy calculating what species had just appeared before them. "Hello. I'm the Doctor. And you are?"

"I am the Empress of the Racnoss," she announced.

Oh. That explained it, perfectly.

"Who are they then?"

"The Racnoss are an ancient race," he hurriedly explained to Donna. "Carnivores capable of stripping a whole planet of all life forms."

"Since we have lost the bride, you must pay," the Empress proclaimed.

"I don't think so, lady," Donna spat. "Not if we can help it. Lance is creeping up on her with an axe so just keep her talking for a minute."

"A bride, you say?" the Doctor questioned the Empress. "Why would you need a bride, and what's it got to do with me?"

He waited with bated breath as Lance advanced closer to the Empress, wielding an almighty axe in her direction. Then at the very last second, when the axe should have landed a blow, Lance stopped and laughed, lowering the weapon.

"Your face," Lance teased the Empress as she turned to him.

"What?! I don't understand," Donna admitted. "He should have killed her."

"Oh Donna," the Doctor sighed sympathetically.

"Lance is so funny," the Empress stated. "He tells me you were looking for the bride; that you are her special friend."

Very special. He didn't want her dead, for a start. "Oh, you know," the Doctor bumbled with false modesty. "Me and Donna have a special relationship. But why aren't you more worried about her?"

"Yes, do tell," Donna added.

Lance smirked. "You have got to be kidding. I'd like to know why you care so much about a woman who is so thick she can't even point to Germany on a map!"

"I knew he never got that joke," Donna fumed. "To think I loved him."

Now angry on her behalf, the Doctor tried to rein in his feelings. "Then why marry her? She loved you."

"That's what made it easy," Lance confessed. "And I had to make sure she didn't run off before the Empress could use her."

"Oh my God! Look at the ceiling," Donna advised. Above them was a massive web. It already contained several bodies, including some Donna recognised as her ex co-workers. "She was going to eat me too."

"And how was the Empress going to use you?" the Doctor demanded of Lance. "Going to spend the night together?"

"It's better than spending a night with Donna. It was nothing but yap yap yap with her. The never ending 'Text me, text me' and fat useless trivia about Brangelina. It never stopped. Her idea of excitement was a new flavour of Pringles."

"This is shaming," Donna muttered, wanting to hide away in the corners of the Doctor's mind.

"Did you think you would become the Empress' prince consort?" the Doctor scorned him. "Is that how she said she was going to reward you?"

The Empress merely laughed in glee at the drama going on in front of her; but she had had enough. Dozens of robotic forms lined the edge of the pathway she stood on, high above the cavern floor. "Kill him," she ordered.

The robots raised their weapons, ready to fire upon the Doctor.

"Oh no you don't!" Donna cried. "I won't let them kill you."

"There's no need," he began, to delay her fears, but she'd already relinquished command of her side of his body, and he fell heavily.

The first bullets whizzed over his head, easily missing him. But the robots were determined to get him. They adjusted their aim just as he regained control of both his hands, and he pulled out the vial he had secreted earlier, turning the lid. "If the Huon particles can take you to the TARDIS, then they can bring to TARDIS to you."

"But it's only a loose link," Donna argued. And yet, she could feel the TARDIS; had felt her all along. 'Come on, Old Girl,' she called out to her. 'Come and rescue him before he's shot to pieces.'

There was a whirl of golden light, followed closely by the outline of the TARDIS as she materialised around the prone form of the Doctor, and then they were gone. Taken to safety in the Vortex.

~O~O~


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** bits of this actually happened in the episode but obviously other bits certainly didn't. Shame, really...

* * *

 **Part 3**

.

"Wow!" Donna cheered as she recognised the inside of the TARDIS and felt her welcoming presence.

"Wow indeed," the Doctor agreed. "Now let's get out of here." With a flick of a switch, they moved further away to get their breath back.

"Are we back in outer space?" she wondered. "Shame you can't take a photo for my granddad."

"How about I show you something spectacular?" he offered, excitedly turning a dial on the console.

"Had a drunk bloke say that to me once from a dark alley."

He frowned. "Really?" Perhaps he would go back in her timeline and deal with that drunk once they'd finished solving the problem of the Racnoss, he decided. "No, I mean something that is genuinely worth looking at."

"He seemed to think so too," she stated. "Come on then, I'll risk it. What do you want to show me? You're being very secretive about it."

Dashing across to the TARDIS doors, he threw them open with a flourish. "That."

Around them were numerous meteorites floating in space in a beautiful swirling mist.

"Oh!" she gasped in awe. "This is amazing. Where are we?"

"Shouldn't the question be: when are we?" he gloated. This, he considered, should be worth the pain of suppressing this information from her being able to detect it. "My spaceship is also a time machine. We've come back to the moment before the Earth was formed. So what do you think, Donna Noble?"

"If this is where you take a woman on a date that's not a date, you must be amazing to go out with. Look at that! There goes the Isle of Wight," she joked as a huge rock drifted by.

"Fancy seeing what comes next?" he proffered. "I can put it on fast forward," he continued when she agreed.

A few twiddles and prods of various things on the console soon had the outside universe moving like a coloured silent film. As they watched, a spaceship looking like a demented Christmas tree star came into view; and it progressed to act like a magnet for all the floating debris around them.

"Whose ship is that?" she asked.

"That is a Racnoss ship. It is literally the centre of the Earth," the Doctor reasoned. "No doubt the Empress has hid in it all these years."

"All that time waiting," Donna thought. "Puts waiting for the right man into perspective."

Hearing the tiredness in her voice, he slowly closed the doors. "Why don't you have a rest for a while, Donna?"

"Okay," she agreed on a reluctant sniff. "I'll stop bothering you for a while."

"No no no no! That's not what I'm saying," he clarified. "I'm tired too. It's been an emotional day. We can go lie down for a while and then start solving your problem when we're more refreshed."

She took that at face value. After all, what else could she do? It's not every day that you find out your fiancé has been planning on feeding you to an alien race because he thinks you are thicker than two short planks.

"You'd better not try anything," she warned him as he started to undress in his bedroom.

"Donna, how would I do that? There's only me here in person," he pointed out. "Not that I'm saying I would have such intentions, or anything. I offered to sleep with you, as your friend. Nothing else."

"Good. Glad we got that cleared up."

"But for the record," he continued, "if you were here, I would be holding your hand right now. We might even be acquainted enough by now for a hug."

She laughed, as he had hoped she would do. "I bet you say that to all the girls."

"Only to you," he schmoozed. "So come on," he encouraged as he plopped down onto the bed, resting his head back against the pillows, "tell me about yourself."

"Not much to tell," she dismissed. "What sort of thing do you want to know?"

"It would help if I knew what you look like," he reasoned.

"You mean the wedding dress won't be a dead giveaway, daft Martian," she teased. She could feel his response to deny being a Martian, so she continued, "Just look for an overweight ginger spinster."

"Ginger?" he queried, perking up. "I've always wanted to be ginger."

"You're weird," she muttered again. "I'll tell you what, if I get back into my body, I'll help you dye your hair totally ginger or add in some ginger highlights. How's that?"

"That could work," he agreed, with a nod of his head. "Even more reason to get you whole again."

"You're all heart," she scoffed.

"Two hearts, actually."

"Really?" She mentally shifted about a bit. "Oh yeah. I can hear them. I'd wondered what that was. Thought you had a bit of trouble with your plumbing."

Affronted, he remarked, "There is nothing wrong with my plumbing."

She knew he had been holding off using the bathroom, for her sake, so she suggested, "Let's not go there. Although… would my body be having problems like that?"

"Blimey! You like the hard questions, don't you? It's probably in stasis."

"I've asked the TARDIS if she knows where it is," she quietly confessed, "but all she said was that it was obvious." She then asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm holding your hand," he sleepily answered, clasping his hands together. "Assuming, of course, you can feel it."

"I can," she mumbled. "Thanks." Then she allowed her mind to rest for a few moments; feeling contented.

~O~O~

When he woke up the Doctor realised that Donna was still resting, so he quickly used the bathroom facilities while he had the chance. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite fast enough.

"Oh my God!" she gasped in his head.

"It's just nature, Donna," he griped. "Look the other way for a second."

"But I can _feel_ it," she whispered. "Sorry. I should know better but we're not even dating."

"Would it help matters if you pretended we are?" he wondered.

"And actually _touch_ you like that? Not on the first date it wouldn't," she commented, aghast. "I've hardly known you five minutes."

"And yet you've already slept with me," he teased.

She immediately sagged her side of his body in punishment.

"Donna! Do you have to?" He rubbed his cheek despite narrowly missing the shower door this time. "I'm sorry. I know you aren't like that, even if Nerys hinted to me that you were."

"Yeah. The cow!" Donna exclaimed in anger. "Anyway, enough about her. Are we going body hunting?"

"Once I've washed and shaved first. Now _please_ let me do that without any unnecessary violence and we can be even quicker about it."

"Alright," she agreed. "I've never shaved a man before. This'll be interesting."

He remained amused with her reactions, while he shaved, washed and preened; right up until he attempted to style his hair. "Donna, do you think you could stop playing with my fringe?"

"But it's so soft and sticky-uppy. Look! I can make it do this."

He glared at her via the mirror. "When you have stopped making me into a unicorn I would appreciate the ability to go and get dressed."

"Oh yeah," she meekly answered. "I'd forgotten about that it. Well, what are you waiting for? Get on with it."

There was a dramatic sigh from him in reply. One day he would understand human women, but apparently not today.

Once dressed and heading out into the main corridor, he proclaimed, "Right. Monitor." He hurriedly pressed buttons on the console. "We should be able to pinpoint anything with a single heartbeat."

"Wouldn't that show where all the rats and spiders are?" She mentally grimaced. "And I don't want to think about all the insects in here."

"No such creatures inside the TARDIS," he assured her, "she won't let them in. Nope, no sign of any parasites."

"Ooh, I am loving her more and more."

"Careful Donna. You're beginning to sound as though you want to stay."

There was no immediate comment to that. As much as she loved the TARDIS, she didn't want to dwell on the possibility of that being a necessity rather than a choice.

"A hah! There you are," he declared with glee. "I'll set my sonic to the correct signal and we'll find you in a jiffy.

"This is like being in the Marauders Map, and a bit awkward if I'm actually IN a jiffy bag," she joshed. "But at least it'd make cleaning up the murder scene easier."

"You've cheered up," he noted as he walked, sonic screwdriver held out in front of him like a beacon in the long corridor they were now in.

"No offence but living inside your head is a bit chaotic," she confessed. "Not that I'm not having fun being with you. But I just want to go home to my own body."

"I know," he agreed. "The signal seems to be in the next room along. I wonder what it is."

"Don't you know your own rooms?"

"No. Fun not knowing, isn't it?" He grinned broadly.

"Or completely bonkers," she mumbled. "The door is purple. I love that colour."

"Do you?" he queried, and turned the door handle. Inside, the light gradually came on.

"Oh, that sort of obvious. I can see what the TARDIS meant now," she noted, taking in the room.

It was filled with muted tones of purple, white and grey that matched each other perfectly. Donna had to admit that, given unlimited funds to furnish and decorate a bedroom, this was exactly what she would have chosen.

"Nice choice," she complimented the TARDIS, and gained a chime of gratitude in reply.

The Doctor's attention was evidently elsewhere. "Is that you?"

Before she could answer, he was moving towards the prone woman in a long white dress on the bed.

"Got many brides in here, have you?"

"No, one is enough." He then gasped, "Oh Donna!"

"I _knew_ you would be more than stunned by the sight of me," she remarked when he stayed quiet. "I dunno. Lying there like a cheap version of Sleeping Beauty. Or in this case, more of a Zonked Out Bint."

He slowly reached out a hand to reverently touch her face and hair. "You're putting yourself down again. You look lovely."

"You're just saying that because I'm here in person, as it were. And don't look down my wedding dress at my enormous boobs. Bit hard to miss, I'm afraid. If I had the money, I'd get them reduced."

"Why?" he squeaked in shock. "There is nothing wrong with you as you are. Nothing at all."

"Says you," she disparaged. "I remember that teeny tiny top laying over the strut in the console room. Don't think I don't. The girl who wore that was much skinnier than I am, so your tastes follow the norm."

"The norm?" He scrunched his face up in disgust at the thought.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Men don't want fat birds like me. I thought I'd struck gold when Lance was interested in me. Seems I thought wrong."

"I can see I'm going to have to get stern with you," he stated. "Lance was wrong about you. Take no notice of him. He's been seduced by the idea of alien power. Although I'm still not quite sure why they needed you to be dosed with Huon particles."

She sighed in dejection. "Does it matter now?"

"Yes, it does. You are still in danger."

"That's comforting," she said to herself.

From his pocket he produced a small item and held it carefully between his fingers. "I'd better put this on your body before anyone else tries to steal you. Then again, the Empress of the Racnoss might also try to get you back."

"Can she do that?" she wondered. "What is it you're holding?"

"Yes, she can," he answered, lifting up her left hand. "This is a biodamp ring."

"Rub it in, why don't you," she griped. "And will it work?"

"We shall soon find out." He then placed it onto her wedding finger whilst cheekily stating the words, "With this ring I thee biodamp."

"For better for worse," she finished. "I think you're enjoying this far too much."

"I'm not….," he began to defend himself, but her body started to glow. "Oh hell! It hasn't worked. They've discovered us."

"I don't feel well at all," Donna faintly voiced. "All sort of…"

"Donna! Hold on, Donna!" he called out, grasping her limp body as she disappeared from his mind.

The whole of the TARDIS suddenly juddered around them.

~O~O~


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** sorry you had to wait so long for it to be finished, but at least it is done now.

* * *

 **Part 4**

.

It felt really weird to have full control of his body again, but the Doctor was sure he'd relearn to move both sides of himself without the help of Donna; even though it took a couple of stumbling attempts before he was confident again. The sudden glaring quiet within his head was much harder to adjust to. He'd been enjoying having such company in his life, despite knowing it would be short lived. And her vibrancy was refreshing.

Making sure that Donna's body was laid down carefully on the bed, the Doctor raced to the console and pulled forward the monitor. They had turned up back in the cavern where the Empress had been. The Doctor crept to the TARDIS doors to peep out.

Outside, Lance was being dosed with a large bottle of water that obviously contains Huon particles. A replacement donor, he deducted. Hopefully that meant Donna was safe now from the alien's clutches.

He rushed back to Donna's body, pleased with his news, only to find she had gone. "DONNA!" he screamed in desperation.

There had to be a way to find her. Returning to the doors, he saw that both she and Lance were held within the spider web above the bored-out hole he'd peered down earlier.

"The bride has finally returned!" the Empress proclaimed.

"What about me?" Lance petulantly wondered. "You can let me go now."

"I think not," the Empress countered. "Both of you will serve my purpose. My children have waited long enough and will be very hungry."

"Oh Donna," the Doctor mentally lamented.

Fortunately, a very groggy Donna spoke in his mind, asking, "What's happened? Did I miss anything important, again?"

"Only Lance being prepared for whatever the Empress of the Racnoss wants with the Huon particles," he silently explained. "That's assuming, of course, that you can still hear me."

"I can," she confirmed. "I'm still inside your noggin. It was the firework display in here that woke me up."

"Fireworks? What fireworks? Oh, that would probably be my thoughts," he maintained.

"Are you sure?" she questioned in disbelief. "There were also rather a lot of emotions wrapped up them, and the TARDIS said…"

"What did the TARDIS say?" he mentally huffed. "You two are being awfully friendly."

"Well, girls together. You know, that sort of thing," Donna dismissed. "Anyway, she seems to think you like me, which I very much doubt, but this is neither the time nor the place to discuss that sort of thing. I could be dead any second now."

"About that," he reassured her, "I am going to rescue your body and save your life no matter what it takes. Judging by how the Empress reacted to your body, it is thanks to the TARDIS that you were separated from it."

At that point his attention was forced back onto the Empress who was in the process of purging her captives' bodies of Huon particles. "My children will have the energy to climb up from the centre of the planet now, having waited millions of years," she announced. "Now which one shall I feed them first?"

"Pick her," Lance readily suggested, indicating with his head towards the silent form that was Donna. Other than that, he had very little movement left in his body, thanks to the tight webbing.

"Good idea," the Empress agreed with a hiss, and then immediately let Lance fall to his death as food for her children that were now quickly crawling up from the depths of the planet.

"She's killed Lance!" Donna yelled in the Doctor's head, but he kept quiet.

Spotting the watching Doctor, the Empress then decided to have some fun by goading him. "Oh look, it's the little physician man, missing his bride. Such a sweet couple." She bared her huge teeth in a mock smile. "Never mind. The bride will soon feed my children."

"I don't think so," the Doctor calmly disagreed, taking out his sonic screwdriver from his pocket.

The Empress reared up in anger. "You cannot stop me, physician man."

"Oh, I'm not a man. I'm not even from Earth."

"Then where are you from?" the Empress demanded to know, her continuing disgust all too evident.

"You might recognise the name. We got rid of you eons ago. I'm from Gallifrey."

"No!" she cried in horror, just as he pushed a button on the sonic.

"What do you do to spiders?" he wondered aloud. "You drown them."

Instantaneously, the sonic vibrations caused the robot servants still lining the cavern to explode. Flames burst out from every direction. The walls behind them start to crumble and water from the River Thames above began to flood in. The water sloshed down the bore hole towards the emerging Racnoss spider hatchlings.

The Empress was beside herself in despair. "My children!" she continued to repeatedly wail for several minutes.

Knowing that her children were now dead, and her mission had failed, the Empress teleported herself out of the cavern and back to her spaceship; unknowingly towards her death at the hands of the armed forces.

But the Doctor stood there in a stupor, watching the world burn and flood around him. The devastation was too close to the trauma he had suffered during the destruction of his own planet. Everything and everywhere was death. The smell overpowered him.

"Doctor, you can stop now. You need to leave," Donna clearly told him.

Broken from his trance, he was able to acknowledge that he had someone to rescue. She needed him. And in that moment he needed her, to lead him back to sanity. From his new position high on a floating platform between inspection ladders, he turned the sonic onto the web, and her body swung down from a thread, into his arms.

Well, almost into his arms. He ended up beneath the ample assets of Donna's body; with her straddling his hips. Just a bit compromising, he had time to note, right before Donna noticed.

"Oi!" she shouted indignantly. "Stop having a quick jolly and get out of here!"

She was a dead weight to carry but a fireman's lift soon sorted out that problem, and they climbed out the cavern via a service tunnel. They broke out onto the service to surprisingly find themselves on top of the Thames Barrier, and the Thames below them completely drained.

"Oops!" the Doctor muttered as several river boat horns bellowed their demise.

"We survived," Donna stated in wonder as he gently laid her body down and then stretched his own to ease his aching muscles. "Thanks for going to all that effort to save me."

He smiled up at the night sky. "You're welcome."

"What about getting me out of here?" She then clarified, "I mean, out of your head and back where I belong."

He considered that. "I'll ask the TARDIS to teleport you down to your house. That should do it."

"And if it doesn't?"

What could he say to that? He'd have to be totally honest. "Then welcome to my world, Donna Noble." He sat himself down next to her prone body by the service hatch, ready to face whatever came next, with good company.

That was just what she needed, eternally living inside an alien's head. "There's one major problem first. How are we going to get back to the TARDIS? It's flooded down there."

"Like this." Grinning, he brought out the vial he had placed in his jacket pocket earlier that day, and the TARDIS materialised around them again.

"Neat trick," she faintly complimented.

Accepting it with ease, he agreed, "I thought so." Then he realised that the voice saying the compliment hadn't come from inside his head but had been external. "Donna?"

Slowly sitting up on the grating of the console room was Donna Noble, giving her head a comforting rub. "Ow, that hurts," she groaned. "And it's bloody freezing in here with us being sopping wet. Any chance of you turning up the heating?"

"Donna," he happily gasped, and gave her a heartfelt hug of welcome.

~O~O~

The TARDIS doors opened on a London street to reveal a man and a woman stepping out into the darkness. Both were formally dressed; him in a suit and her in a bridal dress. Their clothing was crumpled, and they looked worse for wear, but at least they were no longer wet through to the skin.

"Here we are, home," the Doctor announced to his companion. "Back safe and sound with your parents."

Donna gazed around her; and spotted her mum and dad comforting each other through the window. It all looked far too ordinary after the harrowing day they had had. "I never thought I would be grateful to be me again," she commented. Then she turned her thoughts onto the Doctor. "I'll miss you," she quietly admitted, and launched herself into a hug with him, enjoying the comforting feel of his arms around her.

"You should be okay," he deliberately side-stepped the sentiment, forcing himself to release his hold.

"Am I though?"

A quick buzz of the sonic screwdriver up and down her body soon confirmed it. "There you go, all gone. No more Huon particles. You're fine now."

But that wasn't her only concern. He worried her. "What about you? Are you alright?"

"No, half left," he joked. "And look, I can control both sides of my body." He did a dainty pirouette; causing her to openly laugh.

"Careful," she teased, "you'll be boasting you are potty trained too, next."

He shot her a withering look. "I shall think of you every time I pee."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" she queried, giving him a smirk. "Or even tell me you'll be doing that?"

"Maybe not," he agreed, and blushed. Nope, no need to tell her at all about what he'd be thinking as he handled himself in the near future. "So... You. What will you do now?"

That was easy for her to answer. "Not getting married, for a start."

Now was his major chance. "You could..."

"What?" she wondered when he stuttered to a halt.

"You could come with me," he softly finished.

"Poor choice of words still," she advised. "Try again."

He shook his head in disgust. Why had he thought she had changed? Their level of intimacy had made such jokes possible between them, after all. "You could stay with me," he amended. "Come and travel with me, Donna."

"I can't." Seeing his instant crestfallen expression, she explained, "I could make up all sorts of lies to put you off, but now that I know you intimately, I'm going to be totally honest with you. I know you wouldn't ask me unless you wanted me, but I'd only be your 'transition gal'."

He gasped, "Pardon?"

Oh dear. She'd have to lay it on the line. "You know, the person in between the person you loved and the next person you fall in love with. You'd be my 'transition guy', and I don't want to do that to you."

"And what if I don't want anyone else?" he whined.

"Then wait for me. Come back for me when you've had the chance to meet someone else. Because, as it is, I'd only think about that teenager you were so hung up on for a while, and I can't compete with that. No one can. I've been inside your head, so I know the size of the pedestal you'll put her on."

"Okay," he meekly replied, averting his eyes.

"I'd have invited you in for Christmas dinner, but I doubt you'd take me up on it. Doesn't seem to be your sort of thing unless bribed, and I don't hold that sort of sway," she noted. "Promise me one thing though; find someone."

"I will," he promised. "And you be magnificent, Donna."

"You know what? I will be," she determined.

They shared one last look. "Goodbye, Donna"

"Goodbye, Doctor." As the blue box before her dematerialised, there was the plaintive goodbye from the TARDIS in her head and the grieving sob of the Doctor. "Doctor!" Donna shouted.

"Blimey you can shout," he deliberately grouched when they reappeared, and he peered out of the doors. "What is it?"

"This." And she immediately engulfed him in another hug. "I was wrong," she stated on a sob. "I don't care if we are transition people. I don't want to lose you."

Happiness from him exploded into her head, wiping away any doubts that still remained in her mind. A little something that would always be her souvenir of the experience.

Holding on tight, he confessed, "Nor do I you. I want a chance to see how this goes."

"Are you willing to risk it?" she teased.

"Donna Noble, I'd love it!" he enthused.

~~o0o~~


End file.
